've had very few experiences with lag in EVE Online, and the most memorable of them occurred with a server crash, rather than any incident caused by large numbers of pilots in one system. However, lag is a concern for several aspects of the game, along with serving as a constant refrain of complaint.
Enter the Developer Blogs. There currently are seven in the "fixing lag" series, most of which provide some form of detailed analysis on the various issues involved with solving the lag. This seems to be partly occurring because of requests from the player-elected representatives of EVE's Council of Stellar Management, though the actual role and power of the CSM in relation to EVE can be a rather heated subject for debate.
The level of detail in these blogs has stirred up some argument amongst players, some of whom seem to view the problems involved with lag as simple issues that should have been covered already, and responses pointing out various difficulties related to running a game as opposed to programming in an academic setting. Numerous comments simply express gratitude for the information.
Overall, releasing this level of detailed data on the game state offers options for both more thorough criticism of the programmers by players, and for a better understanding by players of the difficulties involved in maintaining the game. Also, discussion of Python and more in-depth questions.
And, in some cases, the detail has left those lacking sufficient programming knowledge out of the conversation. Or just confusedly evaluating pictures of a programmer's facial expression.
